ADR-001: Use MinIO instead of IPFS

Context

The platform stores files that may be protected by subscriptions, token ownership or NFT ownership. Those files must not be freely retrievable when a reader does not satisfy the access policy.

Decision

useContent stores binary content in MinIO and stores metadata in MongoDB.

Consequences

• The backend can enforce access before issuing a download URL.
• Storage usage can be counted per author.
• Files can be deleted or cleaned up according to platform billing rules.
• The system depends on server-side object storage instead of decentralized public content addressing.
• Object keys can use internal identifiers instead of user-facing names.
• Folder bundles and bulk downloads can be generated without exposing a public content-addressed graph.

Alternatives considered

IPFS was not selected because public content addressing does not match the current access-control model. A hybrid model with encrypted IPFS objects was considered too heavy for the current stage because key distribution, revocation and paid access expiry would become separate product problems.